The DigiCube Revival

In 1996, Square established the independent subsidiary DigiCube to commemorate their entry into the PlayStation era. DigiCube served to market and distribute Square's video games, videos, books, toys, and albums. Prior to DigiCube, Square's albums were published by external record labels — Datam Polystar during the NES era and NTT Publishing during the Super Nintendo era. With packages like the Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack Limited Edition, DigiCube quickly became known for offering some of the highest quality and exuberant albums in the video game industry. The company went on to print the original scores, arranged albums, and occasional singles or drama CDs for practically all new entries in the Final Fantasy, SaGa, Mana, Front Mission, Chocobo, and Parasite Eve series. A few soundtracks, such as for Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X-2, were published by other record labels since Square did not have the rights to publish the vocal songs.

Altogether DigiCube released over 70 album releases between 1996 and 2003, including best-sellers such as the Final Fantasy VIII Original Soundtrack. Despite the success of its albums, DigiCube was hit financially crippled by Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within's commercial failure and Final Fantasy XII's delay. While Square was rescued by being absorbed into Enix, DigiCube filed for bankruptcy in November 2003 due to their 9.5 billion yen debt. They still managed a temporary release of the long-awaited Final Fantasy VII Piano Collections but the planned Front Mission 4 Plus 1st Original Soundtrack release was shelved. By early 2004, new copies of Final Fantasy albums were rarely available, though it took a longer for stocks of less popular albums to deplete. This threatened the existence of several well-known online game music stores, since the popularity of Final Fantasy music was far greater than other soundtracks at the time.

In May 2004, Square Enix established their own record label to reprint DigiCube's albums and publish new soundtracks. They did so with the help of distributor Sony Music Distribution. They quickly reprinted the main soundtracks in the Final Fantasy series to the delight of fans and stores alike. They followed by finally releasing the Front Mission 4 Plus 1st Original Soundtrack and reviving the Final Fantasy Piano Collections albums. By late 2004, most major Final Fantasy albums had been reprinted and Square Enix had also published their first totally new album, the Final Fantasy XI Chains of Promathia Original Soundtrack. However, it often took a lot longer for other popular DigiCube albums to be reprinted and it wasn't until 2006 that Square Enix attained an output of new releases similar to that of DigiCube. Below is a list of DigiCube albums in order of release date and their Square Enix reprints where applicable:

Album Title

DigiCube Print

Square Enix Print

Tobal No. 1 Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10001

-

Tobal No. 1 Remixes Electrical Indian

SSCX-10002

-

Final Fantasy VII Original Soundtrack Limited Edition

SSCX-10003

-

Final Fantasy VII Original Sooundtrack

SSCX-10004

SQEX-10001/4

Tobal 2 Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10007

-

Final Fantasy Tactics Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10008

SQEX-10066/7

SaGa Frontier Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10009

SQEX-10001/4

Front Mission Alternative

SSCX-10010

SQEX-10081

Front Mission 2 Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10011

-

Final Fantasy VII Reunion Tracks

SSCX-10012

SQEX-10042

Xenogears Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10013

SQEX-10043/4

Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10014

SQEX-10064

Einhänder Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10015

SQEX-10090

Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon Coi Vanni Gialli

SSCX-10016

-

Soukaigi Original Soundrack

SSCX-10017

-

Xenogears Creid

SSCX-10018

SQEX-10046

Bushido Blade II Original Soundrack

SSCX-10019

-

Parasite Eve Original Soundrack

SSCX-10020

SQEX-10222/3

Brave Fencer Musashiden Original Soundrack

SSCX-10022

-

Parasite Eve Remixes

SSCX-10023

-

Another Mind Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10024

-

Ehrgeiz Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10025

-

Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2 Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10026

Digital Only

is: internal section original soundtrack

SSCX-10027

-

Final Fantasy VIII Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10028

SQEX-10005/8

Cyber Org Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10029

-

Chocobo Racing Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10030

SQEX-10121

SaGa Frontier II Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10031

SQEX-10061/3

Racing Lagoon Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10032

-

Piano Pieces SF2 ~ Rhapsody on a Theme of SF2

SSCX-10033

SQEX-10197

Seiken Densetsu Legend of Mana Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10034

SQEX-10036/7

Front Mission 3 Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10035

-

DewPrism Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10036

SQEX-10074/5

Final Fantasy VIII Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec

SSCX-10037

SQEX-10025

Parasite Eve II Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10038

SQEX-10224/5

Chrono Trigger Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10039

SQEX-10045

Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10040

SQEX-10047/9

Final Fantasy VIII Piano Collections

SSCX-10041

SQEX-10026

Vagrant Story Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10042

SQEX-10068/9

Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10043/6

SQEX-10009/12

Final Fantasy IX Original Soundtrack Plus

SSCX-10047

SQEX-10035

Final Fantasy IX Piano Collections

SSCX-10048

SQEX-10027

The Bouncer Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10049/50

-

Potion: Relaxin' with Final Fantasy

SSCX-10051

SQEX-100073

Square Vocal Collection

SSCX-10052

-

Final Fantasy X: Suteki da ne - Rikki

SSCX-10053

SQEX-10029

Final Fantasy X Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10054/7

SQEX-10013/6

Final Fantasy X: feel / Go dream

SSCX-10058

-

Potion 2: Relaxin' with Final Fantasy

SSCX-10059

-

All Star Pro Wrestling II Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10060

-

Final Fantasy X Piano Collections

SSCX-10064

SQEX-10028

20020220 - Music from Final Fantasy

SSCX-10065/6

SQEX-10030/1

Final Fantasy XI Original Soundtrack Limited Edition

SSCX-10067/8

-

Final Fantasy XI Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10069/70

SQEX-10017/8

Final Fantasy & Final Fantasy II Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10071/2

SQEX-10032/3

Final Fantasy X Vocal Collection

SSCX-10073

-

Unlimited SaGa Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10078/9

SQEX-10242/3

The Black Mages

SSCX-10080

SQEX-10019

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition Vol. 1 Premium

SSCX-10081

-

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition Vol. 1

SSCX-10082

-

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10083/4

SQEX-10070/1

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition Vol. 2

SSCX-10088

-

Hanjuku Hero VS 3D - Fight! Hanjuku Hero / Without Yolk...

SSCX-10089

-

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition Vol. 3

SSCX-10092

-

Final Fantasy XI Rise of the Zilart Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10093

SQEX-10034

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Radio Edition Vol. 4

SSCX-10094

-

Hanjuku Hero VS 3D Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10095/6

-

Sword of Mana Premium Soundtrack

SSCX-10097/8

SQEX-10038/40

Final Fantasy VII Piano Collections

SSCX-10111

SQEX-10020

Front Mission 4 Plus 1st Original Soundtrack

Cancelled

SQEX-10021/4

After reprinting the Final Fantasy soundtracks, Square Enix focused on reprinting other best-selling DigiCube albums. They successively reprinted albums in the Mana (Legend of Mana, Sword of Mana), Xeno (Xenogears, Xenogears Creid), Chrono (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross), and SaGa (SaGa Frontier, SaGa Frontier II) series between October 2004 and February 2006. Around the period of Final Fantasy XII's hype, they also reprinted Hitoshi Sakimoto's Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance soundtrack. More were surprised when Square reprinted Final Fantasy Potion and the Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon Original Soundtrack. Since then, reprints have slowed to a rate of about two per year, but at last Square Enix begun to look beyond the popular series. Some of their latest reprints were the soundtracks for DewPrism, Front Mission Alternative, Einhänder, Chocobo Racing, and the Parasite Eve series. Once again, these released were unexpected given none of these albums were particularly popular in their original prints. Just how far did Square Enix intend to go with the reprints?

Given its reputation for high quality album releases, several companies external to Square entrusted DigiCube to publish their soundtracks back in the day. On behalf of Namco, they printed the albums for Xenosaga Episode I, Tales of Destiny 2, Tales of Symphonia, and Soul Calibur II. Their other honours included Baroque, Armored Core 3, Ragnarok Online, and the Tengai Makyou series, all of which were popular in Japan. Towards the end of their life, DigiCube even published a series of albums for the hip-hop festival B-Boy Park. Many of these albums were never reprinted after DigiCube's demise, but Yasunori Mitsuda personally re-released the Xenosaga Episode I soundtrack in enhanced form and, due to popular demand, new prints of the Tales of Symphonia and Ragnarok Online albums were created. In addition, a box set featuring the Soul Calibur II soundtrack and a completely new soundtrack to Baroque were recently published.

Album Title

DigiCube Print

Company

Tengai Makyou IV The Apocalypse Vocal Collection

SSCX-10005

Hudson

Tengai Makyou IV The Apocalypse Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10005

Hudson

Baroque Original Soundrack

SSCX-10021

Sting

Xenosaga Episode I: Kokoro - Joanne Hogg

SSCX-10061

Namco

Xenosaga Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10062/3

Namco

Tales of Destiny 2 Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10074/7

Namco

Armored Core 3 Silent Line Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10085

From Software

Soul Calibur II Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10086/7

Namco

Ragnarok Online Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10090/1

Gravity

B-Boy Park - We Are The Wild

SSCX-10101

Hip-Hop Festival

B-Boy Park 2000

SSCX-10102

Hip-Hop Festival

B-Boy Park 2001 E.P.

SSCX-10103

Hip-Hop Festival

B-Boy Park Aratanaru michi e...

SSCX-10104

Hip-Hop Festival

Tales of Symphonia Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10105/8

Namco

Tengai Makyou II Manjimaru Original Soundtrack

SSCX-10109/10

Hudson

Square Enix seems to be reprinting few arranged albums. Even though the scores for Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon and SaGa Frontier II were reprinted, their orchestral albums weren't. This seems to be in line with the company's current policy that full-scale arranged albums aren't generally worth producing since they sell fewer copies than original scores and can be costly to record. Nonetheless, perhaps the DigiCube revival will be even more far reaching than anticipated. Square Enix recently republished three classic obscure Super Nintendo soundtracks (Bahamut Lagoon, Live A Live, Rudra no Hihou) on iTunes. Perhaps a similar treatment will be given to those great DigiCube albums that couldn't have commercially viable physical reprints. However, Square Enix are bound to be further physical reprints before then. And who knows what they're thinking? Maybe they'll once again surprise us with their love for hyperactive electronica and make the is: internal section original soundtrack their next target!